The ability to make sense of a wide array of stimuli presupposes the human tendency to organize information in a meaningful way. Efforts to assess the degree to which students organize information meaningfully have been hampered by several factors including the idiosyncratic way in which individuals represent their knowledge either with words or visually. Concept maps have been used as tools by researchers and educators alike to assist students in understanding the conceptual interrelationships within a subject domain. One concept-map assessment in particular known as the construct-a-map task has shown great promise in facilitating reliable and valid inferences from student concept-map ratings. With all of its promise, however, the construct-a-map task is burdened with several rating difficulties. One challenge in particular is that no published rubric has been developed that accounts for the degree to which individual propositions are important to an understanding of the overall topic or theme of the map. This study represents an attempt to examine the psychometric properties of two construct-a-map tasks designed to overcome in part this rating difficulty. The reliability of the concept-map ratings was calculated using a person-by-rater-by-occasion fully crossed design. This design made it possible to use generalizability theory to identify and estimate the variance in the ratings contributed by the three factors mentioned, the interaction effects, and unexplained error. The criterion validity of the concept-map ratings was examined by computing Pearson correlations between concept-map and essay ratings and concept-map and interview transcript ratings. The generalizability coefficients for student mean ratings were moderate to very high: .73 and .94 for the first concept-mapping task and .74 and .87 for the second concept-mapping task. A relatively large percentage of the rating variability was contributed by the object of measurement. Both tasks correlated highly with essay and interview ratings: .62 to .81.

Today’s sustainability assessment frameworks are no longer applicable when evaluating the newautomotive vehicles. Therefore, the need for suitable automotive evaluation frameworks increasesas companies and scientists are trying to predict the important sustainability characteristics oftomorrows car and how it will affect our societies. The goal is to create a conceptual sustainabilityassessment framework to solve the very complex question of what the most important criteria areand how this new transportation type might affect our society. This is done using a systemapproach, a method that is suitable for studying interrelations between the influencing factors incomplex problems like the one between the sustainability dimensions. Scenario analysis has beenused in order to create the future environment and do a segmentation of the plausible concepts offuturistic transportation options. The evaluation criteria have been developed by gatheringinformation through a literature study and from primary sources via interviews.The resulting framework is composed of 19 evaluation criteria from the different dimensions ofsustainability. The framework allows the user to insert a futuristic concept and evaluate it tocompare a numeric score to other concepts to get indicators of how sustainable the concept is. Thesegmentation of futuristic vehicles shows that the most plausible types of automated vehicles areshared taxis, non-shared taxis and privately owned vehicles, all affecting society differently.The thematic analysis of the criteria has shown that there some relationships and types of criteriathat are more important than others. The most essential discovered correlations between criteriaare: Production and affordability and also maintenance & operation and affordability, affordabilitywith accessibility, affordability & accessibility and traffic volumes and further traffic Volumesand pollution. The developed framework is believed to have the desired function of creating a trustworthyassessment of autonomous vehicles based on the literature study and previous discoveries withinthe field. The evaluation of the different segments is left for future work. / Dagens ramverk för hållbarhetsbedömningar är inte längre användbara vid utvärdering av nyasjälvkörande fordon. Därför har behovet ökat av lämpliga ramverk som fokuserar påhållbarhetsutvärderingar när företag och forskare försöker förutse de viktigahållbarhetsegenskaperna av morgondagens fordon och hur de kommer att påverka vårt samhälleutifrån ett hållbarhetsperspektiv. Målet med studien är att skapa ett konceptuellt ramverk förhållbarhetsbedömning som kan hjälpa till att lösa den mycket komplexa frågan om vilka viktigakriterier bör inkluderas vid en evaluering av denna nya typ av transport. Studien har följt ettsystematiskt tillvägagångssätt kallat ”System approach”, en metod som är lämplig för studier därrelationer mellan olika påverkande faktorer är väldigt komplexa, som den mellanhållbarhetsdimensionerna. Scenarioanalys har används för att skapa en framtida miljö och ensegmentering av de mest trovärdiga koncepten av framtida transportalternativ. Utvärderingskriterierna har utvecklats genom att samla in information från en litteraturstudie ochfrån primära källor genom intervjuer. Det resulterande ramverket är sammansatt av 19 utvärderingskriterier inom de olikadimensionerna för hållbarhet. Med det resulterade ramverket kan användaren införa ett futuristisktfordonskoncept och bedöma detta för att få ett numeriskt resultat och jämföra dessa med andrautvärderingar för att få en indikation om hur hållbara koncepten är gentemot varandra. Segmenteringen av de futuristiska fordonstyperna visar att de mest trovärdiga typerna avautomatiserade färdmedel är delade taxitjänster, privata taxitjänster och privatägda fordon, allamed olika påverkan på samhället. Den tema-baserade analys av kriterierna har visat att det finns vissa relationer och typer av kriteriersom är viktigare än andra. De viktigaste upptäckta relationerna mellan kriterier är: Produktion ochekonomisk tillgänglighet, underhåll och ekonomisk tillgänglighet, ekonomisk tillgänglighet medtillgänglighet till transport, tillgänglighet till transport och trafikvolymer, ekonomisk tillgänglighetoch trafikvolymer och slutligen så påverkar trafikvolymerna utsläppet. Det utvecklade konceptuella ramverket antas ha den önskade funktionen att skapa en pålitligbedömning av autonoma fordon baserat på litteraturstudien och tidigare upptäckter inom fältet. Utvärderingen av de olika segmenten lämnas till framtida studier.

Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) have become recognised as brands in the academic and popular domain, but little is known about the relationship between these senior manager ¿brands¿ and the corporate brand of the organisation they represent. Since stakeholders associate the CEO¿s reputation with that of the company, they may negatively or positively affect each other, and there is little research into this dynamic. Indeed there is only a limited understanding about the field of people branding in general and much less into CEO brands in particular. Consequently this doctoral thesis investigates the people and CEO brands phenomena, the relationships between CEO, corporate brand and stakeholder¿s self-image and how these can be effectively managed in order to enhance brand equity for the company. Based on a critical realist perspective, this research examines traditional product brand elements from the literature and develops a new conceptual framework for people brands, which is subsequently applied to CEOs. Furthermore a survey is performed with business school students. The findings are analysed by using content analysis, descriptive statistics and by developing and testing a Structural Equation Model. The contribution to knowledge is threefold. Firstly a conceptual framework of people brands is constructed. Second this model is applied to CEO brands. Third five propositions about stakeholder perceptions of CEO brand differentiation and equity are empirically tested. The main findings are that visual presentation is not the main factor to differentiate CEO brands from each other, nor is their association with the company. Positive perceptions of corporate brands can influence the reputation of the CEO brand and lead to an enhancement of their brand equity. Importantly this indicates that stakeholders do not distinguish between CEO and company. Brand equity is also created if there is a relationship between stakeholder self-image and company brand, which in turn can improve the reputation of the CEO brand. Finally brand equity is enhanced through stakeholder perceptions of an ideal self-image. Overall this research has important implications for academia and managerial practice as it extends the knowledge about people and CEO brands and provides an insight into ways in which the relationships between CEO, company and stakeholders can be managed to enhance brand equity for the company

Hosting major sport events is a large and complex endeavour entangled with various stakeholders, investments, outcomes, resources, and exchanges. Hosting major sport events has often relied on residents’ public funding, with the promise that hosting will create a positive social return on investment (SROI) for residents. However, not only has no empirical research to date determined residents’ SROI from hosting a major sport event, SROI sport research often fails to apply necessary monetary valuation methods and follow an appropriate framework underpinned by relevant economic and social concepts. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to understand residents’ SROI from hosting a publicly-funded major sport event. To address this purpose, four research questions were presented, each answered through one of four articles: (1) what theoretical concepts have been used to underscore residents’ socio-economic exchanges when hosting a publicly-funded major sport event?; (2) which monetary valuation method(s) is(are) best to examine residents’ SROI from hosting a publicly-funded major sport event?; (3) what factors predict residents’ SROI from hosting a publicly-funded major sport event?; and (4) why did residents evaluate their SROI the way they did? To answer these questions, this dissertation first conducted a systematic review of relevant sport management literature and then followed a three-phase sequential mixed methods design which included pre-questionnaire semi-structured interviews with Metro Vancouver Regional District residents (n = 14), a self-administered online questionnaire with Canadian residents (n = 1901), and post-questionnaire semi-structured interviews with Canadian residents (n = 21). In the first article, the systematic review revealed the importance of transparency, economic indicators, and affinity with sport factors when understanding residents’ SROI, but also revealed the lack of research focused on understanding residents’ SROI or the factors concepts associated with it. In the second article, semi-structured interviews were used to understand Vancouver residents’ experiences and desires with hosting the Games. Then 13 monetary valuation methods were evaluated with two monetary valuation methods (i.e., reverse contingent valuation method and opportunity cost approach) considered to be most appropriate to determine SROI based on specific selection criteria and used to examine Vancouver residents’ SROI. Quantitative analyses from the questionnaire findings indicated the reverse contingent valuation method to be best for studying this phenomenon. Through a regression analysis, the third article stressed the importance of financial investments and event outcomes to determine SROI, and predicted SROI based on social experience outcomes, affinity with sport factors, and economic factors. Finally, the fourth article investigated Canadian residents’ post-exchange SROI evaluation through semi-structured interviews and elicited how residents’ perspectives were formulated. Interviewees highlighted the importance of social norms, residents’ identity, and time, and the benefits of having a reflective opportunity to evaluate the exchange itself. Consequently, this dissertation offers four concepts (i.e., structure, norms, time, experience) which collectively creates a comprehensive understanding of residents’ SROI from hosting a major sport event. This collection of concepts is presented in a conceptual framework with insight into its development, presentation, and potential construct relationships. The conceptual framework presents how and why residents who publicly fund major sport events evaluate their SROI. Specifically, this framework outlines the importance of the temporal effects of social outcomes while considering the power and control of government representatives, the alignment of pre-event desires and post-event outcomes, residents’ societal and hosting identities, their positive and negative experiences from hosting, and their affinity with sport and income. These findings highlight that hosting publicly-funded major sport events can produce positive SROI from residents. To do so, scholars, practitioners, and residents need to work harmoniously and transparently. Concurrently, the findings offer a path for scholars to explain this SROI phenomenon and produce better desired positive exchanges for residents and practitioners in the context of publicly-funded sport events.

The main drawback of Alternate Reality Gaming, compared to other genres, is that it lacks reusability; typically it cannot be played freely by anyone, anytime, anywhere. However, with the help of modern technology, especially in the mobile devices section, this can be overcome, at least to a certain extent. Therefore, we propose a conceptual framework built upon these challenges raised by other ARGs, a framework meant for game designers and developers that wish to create reusable ARGs, to add reusability to their own ARGs or even turn their digital games into a mixed experience. We designed it by reviewing relevant literature of past ARGs that had a reusable or a digital component, from which we have drawn conclusions and mixed them with our own ideas. Then we tested it iteratively by developing two prototypes and evaluating them through user feedback.

The world moves toward the era of a smart society that is human-centered, sustainable, and inclusive. Countries employed new information and communication technologies to deliver services and engage citizens in the decision-making process. These services are evolving and in the near future, we can expect a plethora of new services related to Smart Society 5.0 and Industry 4.0, in addition to more traditional services. The possibility of these new technologies to foster sustainable development can only be obtained when all target users have fair access to the offered services. In the e-government context, ensuring service quality is crucial for success. While many factors contribute to service quality, user experience is becoming increasingly important. Governments need to put citizens at the center of the design process of their services and ensure that all target users have an enhanced experience with the offered e-services. Moreover, e-government constantly changes over time and continues to drive opportunities and open new possibilities for potential developments. Therefore, it is highly recommended that government agencies regularly evaluate citizens' experience with the offered services and investigate the factors that significantly influence their adoption behavior. However, numerous research efforts investigated the user experience of e-government from the lens of specific government services in an individual or specific range of countries. There has been a lack of a global e-government adoption framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Despite successful efforts to formalize certain aspects of user experience, there remains a need for a comprehensive and systematic framework for user experience evaluation. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to conduct a comprehensive study of the state of the art in user experience evaluation and develop a unified framework that integrates existing knowledge on the topic. It provides a systematic approach for enhancing user experience by providing guidelines on how to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services efficiently as a reference for future investigations. The research approach was conducted through two main phases. The first phase aims to design the proposed conceptual framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Hence, we have conducted a systematic literature review on user experience towards e-government services and cover all different aspects to better understand target users and enhance their overall experience. This systematic review informed the design of a holistic conceptual framework by investigating factors that significantly affect users' adoption of e-government services globally. The proposed framework provides a standard overarching process for future research in the e-government domain by providing an established methodology for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. This framework is global, it is used to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government in any country to ensure that citizens have a good experience with e-government services in that country. The framework includes the most common significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government that represent the necessary steps to enhance citizen experience and boost their adoption behavior. The second phase implies the utilization of the proposed framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government by developing a reference implementation of e-government adoption based on the proposed framework. The quantitative research methodology was employed using a web-based questionnaire to evaluate the e-government adoption behavior. The questionnaire contains a set of measurement items pertaining to each factor that existed in the proposed framework to investigate their potential relationships. The questionnaire underwent an iterative process of testing and validation to ensure the reliability and credibility of the measurement items. Then, the multivariate statistics, including the structural equation modeling, have been adopted to analyze and examine the framework relationships. Preliminary results of this thesis include two user studies investigating user experience towards specific e-government services to support the development of the conceptual framework. Then, the proposed framework alongside the reference implementation were applied to evaluate the Saudi e-government adoption by evaluating the adoption behavior and developing an explanatory model for the adoption behaviors of Saudi citizens. The contributions of this thesis can be summarized by conducting a systematic literature review on user experience towards e-government services to inform the design of the proposed framework. Then, developing a global conceptual framework for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government. Overall, this thesis provides valuable insights into enhancing citizen experience and increasing their adoption of e-government services, which supports government agencies, practitioners, and policymakers. / Doctor of Philosophy / Governments employed new technologies that are dynamic and smart to deliver services to citizens and ensure they are engaged while using these services. Nowadays, the phenomenon of 'smart society' refers to systems that are human-centered, sustainable, and accessed by all target users. Universal access to government services is the pillar to achieving sustainable development goals as expressions of a smart society. In the electronic government context, ensuring service quality is crucial for success. While many factors contribute to service quality, user experience is becoming increasingly important. Governments need to put citizens at the center of the design process of their services and ensure that all target users have an enhanced experience with the offered e-services. Moreover, e-government constantly changes over time and continues to drive opportunities and open new possibilities for potential developments. Therefore, it is highly recommended that government agencies regularly evaluate citizens' experience and investigate the factors that influence their adoption behavior. In the literature, there has been a lack of a comprehensive review of user experience towards e-government services globally. In addition, many research efforts focused on developing e-government adoption frameworks based on government services in a specific country or a limited range of countries. There has been a lack of a global e-government adoption framework to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. Despite successful efforts to formalize certain aspects of user experience, there remains a need for a comprehensive and systematic framework for user experience evaluation. Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to conduct a comprehensive study of the state of the art in user experience evaluation and develop a unified framework that integrates existing knowledge on the topic. It provides a systematic approach to enhance the user experience by providing guidelines on how to evaluate users' adoption behaviors of e-government services efficiently as a reference for future investigations. This comprehensive review informed the design of a holistic conceptual framework by investigating significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government services globally. Hence, the proposed framework includes the most common significant factors influencing users' adoption behaviors of e-government imported from the comprehensive review's results. This framework provides a standard overarching process for future research in the e-government domain by providing an established methodology for evaluating users' adoption behaviors of e-government services. It is used to evaluate the e-government adoption behaviors in any country to ensure the efficiency of e-government services and enhance the citizen experience in that country. The quantitative research methodology was employed using a web-based questionnaire to evaluate the e-government adoption behavior based on the proposed framework. The questionnaire was tested and validated to ensure the reliability and credibility of the questionnaire items. After that, specific statistical techniques, including structural equation modeling, were used to examine and refine the framework relationships. Preliminary results of this thesis include two user studies investigating users' experience towards specific e-government services to support the development of the conceptual framework. Hence, the proposed framework alongside the developed questionnaire and implemented analysis techniques were applied to evaluate the Saudi e-government adoption by evaluating the adoption behavior and developing an explanatory model for the adoption behaviors of Saudi citizens. This thesis supports the e-government by providing valuable insights to government practitioners and policymakers on enhancing citizen experience and increasing their adoption of e-government services.

As a result of the advances in information and communication technology, E-Learning has been integrated as an essential element in educational settings. Despite its successful implementation, a significant number of E-Learning projects fail to achieve their goals. This has motivated researchers and practitioners to study the reasons for failure and success and the factors that impact E-Learning. This research attempts to investigate the factors that influence the implementation and development of E-Learning and the most appropriate framework for secondary schools in Bahrain. The research adopted a quantitative approach to examine both teachers’ and students’ perceptions of critical factors in secondary schools in the Kingdom of Bahrain. A total of 540 respondents completed the survey-based questionnaire. The results revealed that there are four sets of factors which influence the success of E-Learning in the school education sector. These are: students’ characteristics (computers skills; motivation and attitudes); teachers’ characteristics (attitudes; control of technology and pedagogy and teaching style); technology (quality of technology and effectiveness of infrastructure) and design and content (perceived ease of use and quality of content). In addition, the findings show that there are some differences in perceptions amongst teachers according to gender, specialization, teaching experience and E-Learning experience. Similarly, the findings show that there are some differences in perceptions amongst students according to gender, specialization and level of study (years in school). The main contribution of this research is that it addresses the success of E-Learning in the schools sector in Bahrain and in the Arab region as this area of research lacks theoretical and empirical studies. In addition, the research proposes a conceptual framework that integrates the critical factors and demographic variables. The proposed conceptual framework contributes to the knowledge of E-Learning success by creating a guide for educational institutions and governments for better development and implementation, serving as a planning tool for new E-Learning projects and as an assessment mode for the efficacy of existing projects.

The financial crisis of 2008 highlighted problems with the accounting standard IAS 39, with claims of high complexity, introduction of procyclicality in the financial statements and a proposed role of contributing to the financial crisis. The International Accounting Standard Board issued the predecessor, IFRS 9, which became effective on January 1st, 2018. IFRS 9 introduces a forward-looking Expected Credit Loss model, which significantly change the accounting of loss provisions. With the objective to provide high accounting quality, the International Accounting Standard Board and Financial Accounting Standard Board develop accounting standards based on the conceptual framework, consisting of qualitative characteristics. The study addresses the accounting quality of IFRS 9 through the research question; What implications does IFRS 9 have for equity analysts?  In order to capture the implications, a survey is designed, to reach out to accessible equity analysts of European banks. The results show that the Expected Credit Loss model under IFRS 9 implicate difficulties for equity analysts. Three themes of implications are identified, Time aspect, Complexity and Comparison. Although IFRS 9 provides useful information for the respondents, there are tendencies of a trade-off between relevance and faithful representation. The accounting quality of faithful representation is valued low due to high complexity and low comparability, which might be derived from that IFRS 9 is newly implemented. Despite the implications of IFRS 9, respondents find impairments, today, to be low and a non-vital part of the valuation process of the banking industry.

A Qualidade de Vida no Trabalho (QVT) é tema relevante para as pessoas e as instituições, tem sua origem no ambiente fabril, industrial e de manufatura A sua aplicabilidade em Instituições de Educação Superior (IES) necessita aprofundamento devido à incompatibilidade da simples transposição dessa temática para tal realidade. A partir desse cenário, esta tese tem como temática geral a apresentação de uma proposta de modelo conceitual de gestão da qualidade de vida no trabalho (G-QVT) em IES. A questão da presente tese é: Como estruturar e viabilizar a implementação da QVT em IES a partir de um modelo conceitual de G-QVT? Tem por objetivo geral elaborar um modelo conceitual de G-QVT em IES. O método desenvolvido utilizou o Design Science Research onde foi construído o modelo conceitual para a G-QVT e o Roadmap como proposta de implementação deste modelo. O campo empírico de investigação foi uma IES Comunitária do Sul do Brasil. Os Resultados se expressam em nove Macroelementos: Políticas, Estratégia, Processos, Liderança, Estrutura, Recursos, Cultura, Recompensas e Resultados. Estes apresentam-se associados aos determinantes da literatura e aos fatores críticos de gestão. Tais Macroelementos foram base para a construção de um Roadmap estratégico para a implementação do modelo conceitual de gestão proposto. As considerações finais apontam para a necessidade da definição de uma política institucional que suporte a estratégia e uma implementação do modelo proposto apoiada nos colaboradores da organização alinhada à cultura organizacional. / The Quality of Work Life (QWL) has its origin in the industrial, manufacturing and manufacturing environment. Its applicability in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) needs to be deepened due to the incompatibility of the simple transposition of this theme to such reality. This thesis has as general theme the presentation of a proposal of a model of management of QWL in HEI. The question of this thesis is: How to structure and make feasible the implementation of QWL in HEI from a conceptual framework of Quality of Work Life Management (QWL-M)? Its general objective is to elaborate a conceptual framework of QWL-M in HEI. The developed method used the Design Science Research where the framework for the management of the quality of work life was constructed and the Roadmap as proposal of implementation of this model. The empirical field of research was a Community HEI of Southern Brazil. The Results are expressed in nine macro elements: Policies, Strategy, Processes, Leadership, Structure, Resources, Culture, Rewards and Results. These are associated with the determinants of literature and with critical factors of management. Such macro elements were the basis for the construction of a strategic Roadmap for the implementation of the proposed conceptual framework. The final considerations point to the need to define an institutional policy that supports the strategy and an implementation of the conceptual framework supported by the employees of the organization aligned to the organizational culture.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka elitsatsande handbollsgymnasieelevers upplevda sammanhållning i deras respektive klubblag samt i deras träningsgrupp vid skolan. Vidare studerades handbollsspelarnas upplevelser av skillnader eller likheter i lagsammanhållningen i klubblag och träningsgrupp. Undersökningsdeltagarna bestod av tio män (M = 18,5) som går på ett elithandbollsgymnasium i Sverige. Datainsamlingen skedde med hjälp av en intervjuguide baserad på Carron´s (1982) konceptuella ramverk. Resultaten redovisades i huvudteman där positiva och negativa påverkansfaktorer för lagsammanhållningen klargjordes i träningsgrupp på skolan respektive klubblag. Vidare visade resultaten att majoriteten av undersökningsdeltagarna upplevde en mycket god social sammanhållning i träningsgruppen på gymnasiet och generellt en medelbra social och en bra uppgiftssammanhållning i sitt klubblag. Avslutningsvis framkom att de sammanlagda negativa upplevelserna, med koppling till lagsammanhållning, upplevdes vara fler i klubblag än i träningsgruppen på gymnasiet. Resultaten motsade några samt bekräftade redan tidigare studier. / The purpose of this study was to examine elite high school handball players perception of team cohesion in their teams and elite exercise group in school. Moreover the perception of differences and similarities in team cohesion in the two groups were investigated. The participants were ten men (mean age = 18,5) elite handball high school students in Sweden. Data was collected through an interview guide based on Carron´s (1982) conceptual framework. The results were showed in themes where positive and negative factors related to cohesion were shown in both teams and elite exercise group. Further the results showed that the majority of the participants perceive very good social cohesion in the exercise group in school and generally an average social and good task cohesion in their teams. Finally the total amount of negative perception, associated with team cohesion, were more in teams comparing to the exercise group in high school. The results supported and partly contradicted previous research.